Almost every New Zealand work and residence decision starts with the same question: which occupation is this job, exactly? New Zealand answers it with a code. The code carries a skill level, and the skill level goes on to decide what the job must pay, which visas are open to it, and how long you are allowed to stay. This post explains the classification New Zealand now uses, the National Occupation List (NOL), and how to find your own place in it.

What the National Occupation List is

The National Occupation List is New Zealand's own catalogue of jobs. It is published by Stats NZ, the government's official statistics agency, which released the first version in November 2024 and has revised it since. Every occupation in it carries a 6-digit code, a definition of the work involved, the everyday job titles that fall under it, and exactly one skill level.

It replaces ANZSCO (the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations), the list Australia and New Zealand had shared for decades. New Zealand now has a classification of its own, built around New Zealand jobs and graded against New Zealand qualifications.

Reading a 6-digit code

You only ever need one code per job: the six digits, and the skill level that comes with them. Behind each code sits a short definition of the work, a list of the titles it covers (a single code often covers dozens of them), and, where it applies, the titles that are explicitly excluded from it.

The code is not a judgement of you. It describes the job.

The five skill levels

Every occupation on the list is assigned exactly one skill level, from 1 to 5, where 1 is the most skilled. The level records the usual way into that occupation: a qualification on the NZQCF (the New Zealand Qualifications and Credentials Framework, New Zealand's numbered ladder for qualifications, running from school-level certificates at 1 up to degrees at the top), or a stretch of relevant experience instead of it.

Skill level	Usual qualification	Relevant experience accepted instead
1	NZQCF level 7 to 10 (a bachelor's degree or higher)	5 years
2	NZQCF level 5 to 6 (a diploma)	3 years
3	NZQCF level 4	3 years
4	NZQCF level 2 or 3	1 year
5	NZQCF level 1, or compulsory secondary education	Not offered at this level

Two things are worth being clear about here. The table describes how the classification places an occupation, and that is not by itself a visa requirement: a visa can, and often does, set its own separate test. And the experience route is a real one, written into the list itself, so a long career without the matching paper qualification is not automatically a dead end.

Your code comes from your duties, not your job title

This is where most people go wrong. Do not pick a code because it shares a word with the title on your contract. The classification matches on the tasks and duties you actually perform, so two people who both call themselves "Operations Manager" can sit under different codes, at different skill levels, and get different answers from the same visa.

Read the definition attached to a code, and the list of titles it covers, before you rely on it. If your work spans two codes, the honest question is which set of duties took up most of your time.

Where your code and skill level actually matter

• The AEWV. The Accredited Employer Work Visa is New Zealand's main temporary work visa, tied to an employer that Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has already approved. Skill level sets the pay band: a job at skill levels 1 to 3 must pay at least the New Zealand median wage, which is the hourly rate sitting in the middle of what New Zealand workers earn, while a job at skill levels 4 or 5 must pay at least 1.5 times it. Skill level also decides whether an English language requirement applies, and how long you can stay without a break before a stand-down period, meaning a stretch you have to spend outside New Zealand before you can come back on the same visa. Our post on New Zealand's AEWV walks through the rest.
• The Skilled Migrant Category. The SMC is New Zealand's main points-based route to residence. The same bands appear again: skilled employment has to be full time and paid at the median wage at skill levels 1 to 3, or 1.5 times it at skill levels 4 or 5. Experience only counts toward the SMC's New Zealand work experience points when the job sat at skill levels 1 to 3 and was full time. See New Zealand's Skilled Migrant Category, explained, or put your own numbers through our free SMC calculator.
• The Green List. This is INZ's shortlist of occupations in long-term shortage, and it is named occupation by occupation rather than by band. If yours is on it, you get a faster, more direct route to residence. See New Zealand's Green List, explained.

Where ANZSCO still applies

Here is the part nobody explains, and it is the part that trips people up.

Stats NZ has moved to the National Occupation List. INZ, which is a separate agency and runs the visas rather than the statistics, is moving across gradually and says it is still using ANZSCO to assess skill levels while it does. In practice, right now:

• INZ recognises a set of NOL occupations for AEWV applications and job checks, and adds to that set over time. It states that it does not currently recognise any NOL skill level 4 or 5 job for the AEWV.
• Outside that set, and for SMC applications, INZ still works in ANZSCO terms.
• INZ still publishes the Green List against ANZSCO codes.

So both classifications are live at once, and your job may well have a number in each. That is not a mistake on anyone's part, it is what a transition between two national statistical classifications looks like from the inside. It does mean you should check which list the specific application in front of you asks for, rather than assuming.

What we do with your occupation

Our assessment runs on the NOL 2026 edition of the list, so the codes and skill levels you see are New Zealand's current ones rather than the older shared classification.

• You enter your work history once. We then show you your own job titles back, and ask you to match each one to an occupation code, searching by job title or by code number.
• Every result shows its skill level as you search, so you can see which band a role falls into before you commit to it. Once you have picked a code, you can open its official definition and the job titles it covers, and change your choice if it is not the right one.
• The role you named as your main one is marked, because several New Zealand rules turn on that role specifically rather than on your history as a whole.
• We tell you plainly if a job still has no code, because an untagged job is left out of the New Zealand checks entirely, exactly as though you had never entered it.
• Where INZ publishes an occupation list against codes we cannot match to ours, we name the jobs we could not bridge and tell you to check them yourself, rather than quietly reporting a match we did not make.

That last point is the one we would ask you to judge us on. A tool that always produces a confident answer is easy to build. Saying where a published list and a published classification genuinely do not line up is more useful, and it is the difference between a result you can act on and a result you have to re-check.

Checking the official sources

Before you make a decision, confirm your own code and skill level against the government's own pages:

• Stats NZ: About the National Occupation List
• Immigration New Zealand: Find your job's skill level
• Immigration New Zealand: National Occupation List occupations used for an AEWV
• Immigration New Zealand: Green List roles

Pay thresholds and the median wage are updated by INZ over time, so we do not publish the current figures here. Always read them off the official page on the day you need them.

Want to see which New Zealand routes your occupation opens? Start our free assessment, and we will match your work history to the current occupation codes and line up the pathways that fit.